The first day was spent driving on narrow and windy roads through moorland and then on up through the cloud forest that grows on the peaks that separate Salta from Jujuy.
The road was basically a single lane but had been marked with a central line so that each lane was physically smaller than the width of an average vehicle....it felt to me like I was driving on a cycle lane.
Luckily there wasn't that much traffic and because the road snaked around the ridges you could usually see any traffic coming from a way off.
The original plan had been to push on to the village of Purmamarca for the night but as we had spent more time sorting out insurance than expected, we decided to stop at a campsite just outside of Jujuy once it got dark. It was a good job we did as we would have missed the absolutely amazing scenery that we encountered next. It seemed that every corner we turned we were presented with a new spectacular view of mountains or riverbeds or plains and all in vivid and unexpected colours. We tried to take pictures but they just don't seem to fully capture the awesomeness of it all.
I also used the stop to buy myself a traditional Argentinean mate cup made from a gourd, as recommended by Nico and Manuela our Argentinean friends. Mate is a stimulant drink used by drivers to stay awake on long drives. You almost fill the cup with mate, some sort of twiggy plant stuff, and add water at 70°C (see, I was listening Manuela!) and drink the liquid through a filtering straw, adding more water as you go. It's really bitter and unpleasant when you first drink it but is surprisingly more-ish after the first cup!
Christine isn't so keen though.
The next stop was La Quiaca, the Argentinean border town. We decided to stay there and cross the border the next day as the guide book said it was nicer than Villazon, the Bolivian town on the other side of the border.....for the record they couldn't be any more wrong. La Quiaca was so desolate we didn't really feel safe in the town and decided to drive out of town to camp in the desert and have our last Argentinean BBQ. It turned out to be a really pleasant spot.
Next stop the Bolivian border. We got rid of the last of our Argentinean money by filling up with fuel and headed for the crossing.
The crossing involved a 4 step process :
1) Immigration out of Argentina. This was relatively easy apart from being processed by the slowest one-finger typist I have ever encountered, so it took a little while.
2) Checking the van out of Argentina. We had the correct paperwork for this but the woman at the window wanted us to have two copies of one of the forms. Err...the only problem was we were in No Man's Land, checked out of Argentina, not in Bolivia and having spent all our money...how could we get a copy made!!! The solution was explained to us...simply illegally cross the border into Bolivia and get the copies made and then illegally cross back. Nobody stopped us so we did just that. Luckily I found some Argentinean money I'd forgotten about and the copy place on the other side of the border was happy to accept Pesos.
3) Bolivian immigration...very easy.
4) Bolivian vehicle immigration...also very easy although we did have to show them around the van, not to check for anything, just because they hadn't been in a camper before.
So then we were in Villazon, Bolivia...a lovely and friendly little town despite what the guide book says. We visited the ATM to get some local money, tried out the local empanadas, which were very nice, did a little food shopping and set off for Potosi through more spectacular scenery.
On the way to Potosi we stopped at the tourist town of Tupiza just to have a break. We soon realised the town was really nice, several people we had met in Salta were in town and that we could do the tour to the Salar de Uyuni from here, leave our van in secure parking and not have to drive an extra day to Uyuni. So we decided to stay and booked a 4 day tour for the next day....
